Controversy struck at UFC 259 in the bantamweight title fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling when Yan blasted a downed Sterling in the face with an illegal knee, ending the fight and earning himself a DQ.
Thus becoming the promotion’s first-ever champion to lose his title by disqualification.
Aljamain Sterling, who was down on two out of three judges’ scorecards at the time and losing the fourth round before getting horrendously fouled, wound up the new UFC bantamweight champion.
Sterling won the title by disqualification at 4 minutes, 29 seconds of the fourth round after Petr Yan landed an illegal knee to Sterling’s head. The ringside physician determined that Sterling, who was visibly rocked by the knee, could not fight on. Referee Mark Smith ruled the foul intentionally, making the result a disqualification.
later, Sterling was transported to the hospital for precautionary reasons, according to the UFC.
Sterling had a strong start to the fight. He landed two hard jumping knees to Yan’s head in the first round. Yan rallied late in the first by dropping Sterling with a left hand.
Sterling continued applying pressure in the second, but Yan was mostly nonplussed. He stuffed just about all of Sterling’s takedown attempts and was proficient in the clinch.
Yan landed some hard left and right hands in the fourth round, leading to the odd finish.
“I wanted to continue,” Sterling said. “The fight was fast-paced; it was a lot of action. I know the fans were enjoying that. This was potentially going to be one of the fights of the year or one of the greatest bantamweight fights in history for the title. The action was nonstop until that point.
“Sorry, fans. Sorry that the fight went like this. I hope we get to run it back, do it again, and give you the fight you guys deserve.”